I attended a three day conference on the Brain and Learning in Boston, Massachusetts in 2012. From the conference, I created this presentation which I shared with the administrative team at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools and the county directors of special services.
I also included resources on brain based learning strategies on this page to share with the audience.
BRAIN BASED LEARNING STRATEGIES
R.E.C.L.A.I.M.
Relaxation, Environment, Color, Long Term Memory, Arranging (organizing), Intuition (emotions), and Movement are all important factors of Brain Based Learning. Keep in mind that if you don’t know why you do what you do, it’s less purposeful and less professional.
There has been recent discoveries from the world of neuro-science that can be applied to the classroom. Here’s a list highlighting a few specific areas of research that have important implications for learning, memory, schools and trainings.
The growing brain: the human brain can and does grow new cells
The social brain: how interactions and social status impacts stress levels
The hormonal brain: hormones can and do impact cognition
The moving brain: how movement influences learning
The spatial brain: how space and relational learning & recall works
The attentional brain: prefrontal cortex, what really drives attention and ADD
The emotional brain: impact of threats on hormones, memory, cells and genes
The patient brain: the role of time in the learning process
The computational brain: the role of feedback in forming neural networks
The artful brain: the role of arts and music
The hungry brain: what to eat: the role of nutrition in learning and memory
The memorable brain: how our memories are encoded and retrieved
As you can see, these discoveries come from many areas. Educators need to and ought to combine the findings of the neuroscience field with other fields to diversify and strengthen the applications. Neuroscience is not the only source for research; it’s an important part of a larger puzzle. When you synthesize it with other fields like sociology, chemistry, anthropology, future studies, anthropology, therapy and others, you can get some powerful applications.
Double Doodling.doc – Movement to Energize, Motivate, Engage, Clear the Mind, Focus
No prescribed way (would undo nature of what we’re doing)
Attention to Engagement and Motivation through Color, Movement (cross laterals), Tweaking
Techniques, Environments for learning, Relaxation (Right State of Mind), Emotions, and Long
Term Memory.
Memory Techniques Bookable, specifically Europe and Rhymes MnemonicDevices.pdf
Placemats: Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences, 2-D Graphic Organizers, Learning Pyramid,
Supplies, Relaxation Techniques, Test Taking Strategies. Segue from Note-Making Placemat to
Note Making Page. Homework Placemat Side A.pubHomework Placemat Side B.pub
Cross Laterals: Ear/Nose, Hand to Shoulder, Arm Hug, Cross Crawl
Highlight Eric Jensen’s Books, specifically Energizers -- Where to get the books by Jensen, Sousa, & Dennison
Use pictures, symbols, or graphic representations: Climate example Climate.doc,
Frustrated example Frustrated.doc, Ambience example Ambience.doc,
Kidspiration examples - Food Chain Food Chain.kid and
Addition Addition_Example.kid examples - need Kidspiration to view these examples
Tell a story using one of the photo editing software applications - iPhoto, Photo Story, or Picasa
Study & play with data as online flashcards, hangman games, crossword puzzles, matching, word searches, etc.Flashcards can be studied online, printed, exported to cell phones on iPods, or embedded on websites & blogs.
Create a word cloud from the text you provide, giving greater prominence to words that appear most frequently. Wordles can be printed or embedded on websites and blogs.
Persuasive Games has a diverse portfolio of successful videogames. These games are designed for advertisers, public policy makers, corporate trainers, educators, news organizations—as well as ordinary people.
We strive to push the envelope of traditional game design while demonstrating the power of games as a persuasive medium. The result is a powerful thought adventure leading to new ways of thinking.
Colorfall
Colorfall - Colorfall is a puzzle game promoting cognitive health and physical activity. It was created in partnership with Humana Games for Health.
Killer Flu - A game about seasonal and pandemic flu, how they mutate, and how they are spread. Commissioned by the UK Clinical Virology Network and produced in association with Scotland's Traffic Games.
Jetset: A Game for Airports - A game for the frazzled globetrotter in all of us. Keep up with the changing rules of airport security on your iPhone or iPod touch. Play in airports to earn unique souvenirs to keep, give to friends, or redeem for prizes.
CNN Campaign Rush - Grab that phone! Can you take the hectic pace inside a campaign office? Propel your party to victory in our CNN Campaign Rush game. Created for and published by CNN during the months running up to the 2008 Presidential Election.
Fatworld - Fatworld is a game about the politics of nutrition. It explores the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics in the contemporary U.S.
Presidential Pong - Trade simulated debate barbs in this jovial game about each of the top 2008 Presidential hopefuls in this, CNN.com's first newsgame.
Food Import Folly - Take the role of the FDA inspectors in a world of increasingly numerous food imports and increasingly unmanagable risk. Your charge: try to protect the country from contaminants in foreign food imports using extremely limited resources.
The Arcade Wire: Xtreme Xmas Shopping - Crazed shoppers will do anything to get their hands on the hottest, scarcest gifts from Christmases present and past.
The Arcade Wire: Bacteria Salad - Your goal is simple: Harvest mass amounts of cheap produce and sell it for as much profit as possible. But watch out for floods and animal waste, or your greens might turn, uh — brown — and your customers will get E. Coli.
The Arcade Wire: Oil God - You are an Oil God! Wreak havoc on the world's oil supplies by unleashing war and disaster. Bend governments and economies to your will to alter trade practices. Your goal? Double consumer gasoline prices in five years using whatever means necessary. Oil God is the second in our ongoing series of newsgames.
The Arcade Wire: Airport Security - The first in a series of newsgames called The Arcade Wire, Airport Security offers a satirical critique of airport security practices circa early fall 2006, when security agencies in the US and abroad changed their policies to prohibit common items like toothpaste and hair gel.
Disaffected! - a videogame parody of the Kinko’s copy store, a source of frustration from its patrons. Disaffected! puts the player in the role of employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store. From a new series of persuasive games we call anti- advergames.
Airport Insecurity - a game about inconvenience and the tradeoffs between security and rights in American airports. While the government wants you to believe that increased protection and reduced rights are necessary to protect you from terrorism, the effectiveness of airport security practices is uncertain.
Stone City – Cold Stone Creamery, Inc. - Cold Stone commissioned an employee training game to focus on the issue portion sizes and their relationship to profitability.
Xtreme Errands - Xtreme Errands coincides with the North American launch of the Jeep Commander and challenges players to complete tasks utilizing the unique features of this vehicle.
Activism, The Public Policy Game - Sponsored by the DCCC and released during the height of the 2004 general election, players are challenged to balance six public policy issues with limited time and resources.
Take Back Illinois - Sponsored by the Illinois GOP, Take Back Illinois challenged players to explore four issues surrounding the 2004 state elections: Medical Malpractice Reform, Education Reform, Grassroots Activism, and Economic Reform. Take Back Illinois was a 2005 Slamdance Independent Game Festival Finalist.
The Howard Dean for Iowa Game - launched at Christmas 2003 to help Dean supporters understand grassroots outreach and to encourage them to participate in pre-caucus campaigning in Iowa or in their local area. Ccommissioned by Dean for America, the game was the first ever official U.S. Presidential Election game.
I also included resources on brain based learning strategies on this page to share with the audience.
BRAIN BASED LEARNING STRATEGIES
R.E.C.L.A.I.M.Relaxation, Environment, Color, Long Term Memory, Arranging (organizing), Intuition (emotions), and Movement are all important factors of Brain Based Learning. Keep in mind that if you don’t know why you do what you do, it’s less purposeful and less professional.
There has been recent discoveries from the world of neuro-science that can be applied to the classroom. Here’s a list highlighting a few specific areas of research that have important implications for learning, memory, schools and trainings.
The growing brain: the human brain can and does grow new cells
The social brain: how interactions and social status impacts stress levels
The hormonal brain: hormones can and do impact cognition
The moving brain: how movement influences learning
The spatial brain: how space and relational learning & recall works
The attentional brain: prefrontal cortex, what really drives attention and ADD
The emotional brain: impact of threats on hormones, memory, cells and genes
The patient brain: the role of time in the learning process
The computational brain: the role of feedback in forming neural networks
The artful brain: the role of arts and music
The hungry brain: what to eat: the role of nutrition in learning and memory
The memorable brain: how our memories are encoded and retrieved
As you can see, these discoveries come from many areas. Educators need to and ought to combine the findings of the neuroscience field with other fields to diversify and strengthen the applications. Neuroscience is not the only source for research; it’s an important part of a larger puzzle. When you synthesize it with other fields like sociology, chemistry, anthropology, future studies, anthropology, therapy and others, you can get some powerful applications.
Double Doodling.doc – Movement to Energize, Motivate, Engage, Clear the Mind, Focus
No prescribed way (would undo nature of what we’re doing)
Attention to Engagement and Motivation through Color, Movement (cross laterals), Tweaking
Techniques, Environments for learning, Relaxation (Right State of Mind), Emotions, and Long
Term Memory.
Long Term Memory -2 page.doc – Specifically Emotions and Learning
Color Handout Color Responses.pdf
Lazy 8’s
Brain Handout: Go over each of the parts and cut into Foldable. Brain Bookable.pdf
Arm Activation.doc
Memory Techniques Bookable, specifically Europe and Rhymes MnemonicDevices.pdf
Placemats: Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences, 2-D Graphic Organizers, Learning Pyramid,
Supplies, Relaxation Techniques, Test Taking Strategies. Segue from Note-Making Placemat to
Note Making Page. Homework Placemat Side A.pub Homework Placemat Side B.pub
NotetakingNotemakingPage.pub / SQ3R Sheet.pub
Cross Laterals: Ear/Nose, Hand to Shoulder, Arm Hug, Cross Crawl
Highlight Eric Jensen’s Books, specifically Energizers -- Where to get the books by Jensen, Sousa, & Dennison
Use pictures, symbols, or graphic representations: Climate example Climate.doc,
Frustrated example Frustrated.doc, Ambience example Ambience.doc,
Kidspiration examples - Food Chain Food Chain.kid and
Addition Addition_Example.kid examples - need Kidspiration to view these examples
Tell a story using one of the photo editing software applications - iPhoto, Photo Story, or Picasa
BRAINIGAMI
http://brainigami.wikispaces.com/Brainigami+2.0
FOLDABLES
Source: ruthiewalker.posterous.com via Erica on Pinterest
DIGITAL STORYTELLING RESOURCES
VOCABULARY VIDEOS
BIG HUGE LABS resources:
MOTIVATOR : Create your own "Motivational" Style posters using your vocab words!
TRADING CARDS : Create your own "Baseball" Style cards using words and images!
CUBE : Create a 3-dimensional cube of pictures or words to enhance vocabulary understanding! (Or for comparative analysis?)
LOTS OF OTHER TOOLS : From BigHugeLabs - many of which could be used for Vocab Instruction and Support!
Rev Up Your Lessons
Created by Angela Cunningham and published originally on her BLOG .
Information
For more information on using Glogster, watch theGetting Started with Glogster andGlogster Tutorial videos.
Also Try: Quia,QuizEgg
Also Try: Obsurvey
Also Try: BrainFlips,Cobocards,Ediscio,Knowtes
Also Try: Capzles,Dipity, TimeGlider
Also Try: CoverItLive,Today’s Meet
Also Try: Stixy
For more information on using Wordle, refer to 38 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom.
We strive to push the envelope of traditional game design while demonstrating the power of games as a persuasive medium. The result is a powerful thought adventure leading to new ways of thinking.